Hitherto, a game is known in which when a plurality of players participate in the game and play the game on a display screen displayed on a shared display means, the screen is split into sections. In the conventional art, with regard to reproduction of a sound effect and the like in such a game which is played by multiple players with the display screen split into sections, the sound effect is generally reproduced merely at a center without particularly calculating a localization of a sound from a sound source for the sound effect. Alternatively, a process of reproducing sounds whose number is equal to the number of sections into which the screen is split is performed in some cases.
For example, a case is considered in which, in a game set in a virtual three-dimensional space, a process of splitting a screen into sections for playing the game as described above is performed. In this case, for example, when sound is reproduced merely at a center with regard to localization, it is difficult for each player to aurally determine whether a certain sound source (e.g., an enemy character emitting a predetermined sound) present within the virtual three-dimensional space is close to or distant from the position of a character operated by each player. In addition, even when sounds whose number is equal to the number of sections into which the screen is split are reproduced, the sound from the same sound source is reproduced many times. Thus, a process becomes complicated, or the same sounds are outputted in an overlapping manner to excessively increase the sound volume.
Therefore, it is a feature of the exemplary embodiments to provide a game system, a game process control method, a game apparatus, and a computer-readable non-transitory storage medium having stored therein a game program, which allow each player to easily aurally recognize a sound source close to a character operated by each player in a game that is played with a screen split into sections. It is noted that the computer-readable storage medium include, for example, magnetic media such as a flash memory, a ROM, and a RAM, and optical media such as a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, and a DVD-RAM.
The feature described above is attained by, for example, the following configuration.
A configuration example is a game system which includes a sound output section configured to output a sound based on an audio signal and which represents a virtual three-dimensional space in which a plurality of virtual microphones and at least one sound source object associated with predetermined audio data are located. The game system includes a sound reproduction section, a received sound volume calculator, a first localization calculator, a second localization calculator, and a sound output controller. The sound reproduction section is configured to reproduce a sound based on the predetermined audio data associated with the sound source object, at a position of the sound source object in the virtual three-dimensional space. The received sound volume calculator is configured to calculate, for each of the plurality of virtual microphones, a magnitude of a sound volume of the sound, reproduced by the sound reproduction section, at each virtual microphone when the sound is received by each virtual microphone. The first localization calculator is configured to calculate, for each of the plurality of virtual microphones, a localization of the sound, reproduced by the sound reproduction section, as a first localization when the sound is received by each virtual microphone. The second localization calculator is configured to calculate a localization of a sound to be outputted to the sound output section as a second localization on the basis of the magnitude of the sound volume of the sound regarding the sound source object at each virtual microphone which is calculated by the received sound volume calculator and the localization at each virtual microphone which is calculated by the first localization calculator. The sound output controller is configured to generate an audio signal regarding the sound source object on the basis of the second localization calculated by the second localization calculator and to output the audio signal to the sound output section.
According to the above configuration example, when a plurality of the virtual microphones which receive the sound from the single sound source object are present within the virtual three-dimensional space, it is possible to perform sound representation that allows a sense of distance between each virtual microphone and the sound source object to be easily and aurally grasped.
Additionally, the game system may further include a display section; and a display controller configured to split a display area included in a display screen displayed on the display section into split regions whose number is equal to the number of players who participate in a game and to display an image representing a situation within the virtual three-dimensional space, on the split region assigned to each player. Furthermore, each virtual microphone may be associated with any of the split regions and may have a sound localization range corresponding to the associated split region, and the first localization calculator may calculate the first localization by using the sound localization range corresponding to the split region associated with each virtual microphone. Moreover, the display controller may split the display area such that the split regions are aligned along a lateral direction.
According to the above configuration example, in a game that is played with a screen being split, a player is allowed to easily recognize a sound close to a character operated by the player.
Additionally, the second localization calculator may calculate the second localization such that a weight assigned to the first localization at the virtual microphone having the greatest magnitude of the sound volume which is calculated by the received sound volume calculator is increased.
According to the above configuration example, it is possible to perform sound representation that allows a sense of distance between each of the plurality of virtual microphones and the sound source object to be easily and aurally grasped.
Additionally, the game system may further include an output sound volume setter configured to set, as a sound volume of a sound to be outputted to the sound output section, the greatest sound volume among the sound volume at each virtual microphone which is calculated by the received sound volume calculator. The sound output controller may output the sound based on the audio signal with the sound volume set by the output sound volume setter.
According to the above configuration example, it is possible to perform sound representation that allows a sense of distance between the virtual microphone and the sound source object to be easily and aurally grasped.
Additionally, a plurality of the sound source objects may be located in the virtual three-dimensional space. Furthermore, the received sound volume calculator may calculate, for each virtual microphone, a magnitude of a sound volume of a sound regarding each of the plurality of the sound source objects at each virtual microphone. The first localization calculator may calculate, for each virtual microphone, the first localization regarding each of the plurality of the sound source objects. The second localization calculator may calculate, for each virtual microphone, the second localization regarding each of the plurality of the sound source objects. The sound output controller may generate an audio signal based on the second localization regarding each of the plurality of the sound source objects.
According to the above configuration example, when there are a plurality of the sound source objects, a sense of distance between the virtual microphone and each sound source object is allowed to be easily and aurally grasped.
Additionally, the sound output section may be a stereo speaker, and each of the first localization calculator and the second localization calculator may calculate a localization in a right-left direction when a player facing the sound output section sees the sound output section.
According to the above configuration example, for example, in a game in which a display area of a screen is split in the right-left direction, a sense of distance between the sound source object and the virtual microphone (or a character operated by the player) is allowed to be easily and aurally grasped for each split region.
Additionally, the sound output section may be a surround speaker, and each of the first localization calculator and the second localization calculator may calculate a localization in a right-left direction and a localization in a forward-rearward direction when a player facing the sound output section sees the sound output section.
According to the above configuration example, a sense of distance in the depth direction between the sound source object and the virtual microphone is allowed to be easily and aurally grasped.
According to the exemplary embodiments, in a game that is played with a screen being split, each player is allowed to easily grasp a sense of distance between a sound source object and a character operated by each player, and thus the fun of the game is allowed to be enhanced further.